Re: OCD as an example » Squiggles

> therapy is to manic-depression, what cleaning with water is to puerperal infection-- you need an antibiotic to fight it.

but that is an empirical matter.it is like... if you go back in time 100 years then what is the treatment for bipolar? there isn't really one... then you get medications developed... and the medications work more or less well and they do studies on which are most effective and clinicians do a little bit of experimentation 'will this work for you... no... how about this?' and they do more studies and over time the treatment gets better. psychological and social treatments are still in their infancy *especially* with symptoms of bi-polar and schizophrenia. they really are in their infancy. not many studies have been done and not many psychological and social interventions have been developed yet for those disorders even less gone on to be studied empirically to see how well they work.

just as medications are advancing...therapy is advancing...and social treatments too...

> In other words, therapy alone will not stabilize> a manic-depressive; drugs first, therapy later if desired.

with the current psychotherapies and social interventions that are available for bi-polar you might well be right.

but then... you might be wrong because the studies haven't been done and thus we don't know.

with future psychotherapies and social interventions that are yet to be developed... who knows.

personally... i think it would be a great thing if those kinds of interventions helped (either by better prognosis COMBINING those with medication) or even alone so people don't have to suffer the negatives of drug treatment. but the best treatment or treatment combination is an empirical matter and the studies need to be done...

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there are many medications. ranging from asprin to lithium...there are many psychotherapies. ranging from a coffee table chat to intensive controntational varieties...

not all of them are coffee table chats...

in fact... the coffee table chats seem to be fairly consistently outperformed by other varieties...

though the coffee table chats seem to outperform the absence of coffee table chats...

but babble and friendships are of CONSIDERABLE importance too, i hear you on that.